Abstract:
A number of non-market valuation methods have been developed for integrating the costs and benefits of environmental impacts and mitigation measures in traditional economic welfare analysis. Because most of these methods are costly and time-consuming, welfare estimates from previous studies are often used in the evaluation of new projects, in what has come to be known as benefit transfer . As non-market valuation of environmental impacts gains acceptance, benefit transfers are increasingly practised by development aid agencies and their consultants.
The dissertation is a methodological and empirical evaluation of the reliability of the most popular benefit transfer approaches, relative to conducting original non-market valuation studies. Field studies were conducted in Costa Rica on households and visitors willingness-to-pay for avoiding sewage pollution of local coastal water resources. The size and causes of transfer errors are examined when benefit transfers are conducted between countries, and between different sites within the same country. If a consultant proposes a method which is both quick and cheap, how dirty is it? The research provides decision-makers working on water pollution issues with a basis for evaluating the uncertainty in benefit-cost analyses of treatment measures. The studies also contribute to the scarce literature on valuation of the environment in developing countries.
Key words: Contingent valuation, benefit transfer, water quality, development.
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David N. Barton was born in Merton, England in 1968. He has an MSc in economics and business administration from the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration in Bergen, an MSc in economic policy with an emphasis on ecological economics from Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica, and a Dr.Scient in agricultural and resource economics, with emphasis on environmental economics, from the Agricultural University of Norway. Currently, he is at InterConsult Group, where he works with environmental economics. Associate professor Ståle Navrud was the advisor for this thesis.
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